There's a lot I could go into here, but I'm going to talk about your closing screencap. It's awful and offensive.
I understand you likely identify as Asian-American and a woman, which means that it's baffling that you see these demographics as groups that are "expected" to "lie down and take it". This expectation is shared by, possibly right-wing racists, but no one who has encountered the listed groups.
Great post!! Could not agree more that "DeSantis is a bigger problem for liberals than [we're] willing to admit." I feel like I'm shouting into the void sometimes warning fellow liberals that DeSantis is on the march towards an Orban-like hammerlock on power and would be an OVERWHELMING favorite in a general election.
His culture war attacks are authoritarian and often cruel - but he is an evil genius at carefully stage-managing these attacks so that he gets to posture against unpopular targets. We are never going to beat him on culture war, and especially not if we run against him as the defenders of, like, professors who want to teach CRT. And like his hero in Hungary, he has shown a clear willingness to use heavy-handed state power to impose conservative sensibilities on civil society. As president he would be a dangerously effective authoritarian.
I actually kind of disagree that DeSantis will be influenced by his donors into not overreaching with his curriculum bans - I think he will tell them "I win and stay in control with relentless culture war, and if you want tax cuts you support me." And I think they ultimately will, because a durable right-wing autocracy that keeps their taxes low sounds pretty good to most elite Republicans. DeSantis is not the kind of guy who sees really any kind of limits or need for restraint in exercising power.
His to-the-right-of-Paul-Ryan fiscal policy and his desire to ban all abortion are probably his only real weaknesses and we need to focus relentlessly on them.
There's a lot I could go into here, but I'm going to talk about your closing screencap. It's awful and offensive.
I understand you likely identify as Asian-American and a woman, which means that it's baffling that you see these demographics as groups that are "expected" to "lie down and take it". This expectation is shared by, possibly right-wing racists, but no one who has encountered the listed groups.
Great post!! Could not agree more that "DeSantis is a bigger problem for liberals than [we're] willing to admit." I feel like I'm shouting into the void sometimes warning fellow liberals that DeSantis is on the march towards an Orban-like hammerlock on power and would be an OVERWHELMING favorite in a general election.
His culture war attacks are authoritarian and often cruel - but he is an evil genius at carefully stage-managing these attacks so that he gets to posture against unpopular targets. We are never going to beat him on culture war, and especially not if we run against him as the defenders of, like, professors who want to teach CRT. And like his hero in Hungary, he has shown a clear willingness to use heavy-handed state power to impose conservative sensibilities on civil society. As president he would be a dangerously effective authoritarian.
I actually kind of disagree that DeSantis will be influenced by his donors into not overreaching with his curriculum bans - I think he will tell them "I win and stay in control with relentless culture war, and if you want tax cuts you support me." And I think they ultimately will, because a durable right-wing autocracy that keeps their taxes low sounds pretty good to most elite Republicans. DeSantis is not the kind of guy who sees really any kind of limits or need for restraint in exercising power.
His to-the-right-of-Paul-Ryan fiscal policy and his desire to ban all abortion are probably his only real weaknesses and we need to focus relentlessly on them.